Secret Phones and Messaging Apps Are Taking Off

Editor

A new generation of phones and messaging apps with a focus on privacy and security is starting to come to come to market, a sign of reordered priorities in the post-Snowden world.

Until last spring, when Edward Snowden leaked documents about the extent of NSA surveillance, security was something that most consumers and even businesses addressed as an application. With a few exceptions—like Blackberry Ltd.’s messaging service—it was rarely the defining quality of a communications device or app, which typically are purchased on the basis of their overall functionality or appeal. That is starting to change, albeit slowly. Several new communications products are conceived around the idea of privacy and security.

A startup called Wickr, which has developed an application for sending encrypted, self-destructing messages, announced on Monday that it raised $9 million in Series A funding from Alsop Louie Partners and other investors, TechCrunch reported on Monday. “The business model will be based on licensing its encryption and self-destructing technologies to other messaging apps,” TechCrunch said, surmising that “telcos and other companies providing messaging services (think: enterprise users here) are also in the customer pipeline.”

Just last week, aerospace and defense giant Boeing Co. said it had developed a smartphone called Boeing Black, which encrypts communications and wipes all data if someone tampers with the case. The phone, targeted toward government agencies and contractors, would be sold by Boeing or its agents, and work on a wide variety of networks, according to Reuters.

And Telegram Messenger, an encrypted messaging app, “is the hottest messaging app in the world,” the Verge reported last week. “The app skyrocketed to the top of the App Store charts, and is now the top free app in 46 countries from Germany to Ecuador. In the US and several other countries, the app is no. 1 in the social networking category, ahead of Facebook, WhatsApp, Kik, and others,” it said. Telegram is backed by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, the founder of Russian social network VKontakte. “The No. 1 reason for me to support and help launch Telegram was to build a means of communication that can’t be accessed by the Russian security agencies,” Mr. Durov told TechCrunch. Downloads have soared since Facebook Inc.’s acquisition of Whatsapp.

He claims that the encryption is the best available and offers a $200,000 bounty to anyone who can hack it. “No one won so far, but a guy from Russia found a serious issue in December and received $100,000 from me,” Mr. Durov said.

Of course, all of these products and companies are in the early stages of development. But if they are any indication of where the market is headed, privacy and security are likely to become bigger priorities for established carriers and device makers, and for their customers in the consumer and business markets alike. It seems likely priorities changed permanently since the Snowden documents were released.

Comments (3 of 3)

There's a new messaging App out called blabFM , its got express message feature where the sender can send text or image message and time it to self destruct from 5 - 60 seconds time , so after the chosen self destruct time the message or image will self destruct. Awesome feature

9:48 am March 4, 2014

Tom G wrote:

The report says BBM is an exception. Is this not true?

12:31 am March 4, 2014

pa2013 wrote:

Since smartphones are backdoored by the NSA at the OS and hardware levels, it is silly to pretend that any smartphone app can provide privacy.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's fourth annual Millennial Survey reveals the business activities and outcomes members of Generation Y would prioritize if they held leadership positions. In highlighting millennials' priorities, the survey results draw attention to this generation's values and the themes large enterprises should speak to if they wish to attract and retain members of this rising workforce.